PMID- 12809983 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20030710 LR - 20190701 IS - 0304-3940 (Print) IS - 0304-3940 (Linking) VI - 345 IP - 1 DP - 2003 Jul 10 TI - Postnatal changes in nerve growth factor and brain derived neurotrophic factor levels in the retina, visual cortex, and geniculate nucleus in rats with retinitis pigmentosa. PG - 37-40 AB - Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats are a well established animal model of inherited retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Using RCS rats we examined the distribution of nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the visual cortex, geniculate nucleus and retina at three different postnatal ages. It was found that the retina of rats with RP expresses low amounts of NGF and BDNF in young and adult life. Altered levels of these factors were found in the visual cortex and in the geniculate nucleus. Our findings indicate that NGF and BDNF are differentially affected in the visual system of developing and adult RCS rats, suggesting that neurotrophins may be implicated in the pathogenesis of inherited RP. FAU - Amendola, Tiziana AU - Amendola T AD - Istituto di Neurobiologia e Medicina Molecolare, CNR Rome, viale Marx 15, Italy. FAU - Fiore, Marco AU - Fiore M FAU - Aloe, Luigi AU - Aloe L LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't PL - Ireland TA - Neurosci Lett JT - Neuroscience letters JID - 7600130 RN - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) RN - 9061-61-4 (Nerve Growth Factor) SB - IM MH - Age Factors MH - Animals MH - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/*metabolism MH - Geniculate Bodies/growth & development/*metabolism MH - Immunoenzyme Techniques MH - Nerve Growth Factor/*metabolism MH - Rats MH - Retina/growth & development/*metabolism MH - Retinitis Pigmentosa/*metabolism MH - Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction MH - Visual Cortex/growth & development/*metabolism EDAT- 2003/06/18 05:00 MHDA- 2003/07/11 05:00 CRDT- 2003/06/18 05:00 PHST- 2003/06/18 05:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2003/07/11 05:00 [medline] PHST- 2003/06/18 05:00 [entrez] AID - S0304394003004919 [pii] AID - 10.1016/s0304-3940(03)00491-9 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Neurosci Lett. 2003 Jul 10;345(1):37-40. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3940(03)00491-9.